During the time I spent with Karen at Dynamic Edge, I realized that sports vision training has many different applications that I was unaware of. The training for sport performance is obvious but I also learned it can be helpful in both head injury rehab, stroke rehab and concussion management. At Niagara Health & Rehab Centre we work with patients from all walks of life, from individuals who have suffered a stroke to Olympic and world class athletes. I feel that the training I received from Karen will be useful for many of these patients. On a personal note, I think the sport vision training with help me in my other job as a professional soccer referee in Major League Soccer. We are constantly needing to assess play and movement of players in the periphery and the training will certainly help in the regard. Thanks Karen for a excellent week of training and education!

Sports Vision Training

What Is Sports Vision Training?

Sports Vision Training is about improving an athlete's performance by training visual skills such as peripheral awareness, eye-hand coordination, and speed and span of recognition.
Sports Vision training is quickly gaining attention as the next frontier in sports training.

Dynamic Sensory Motor Integration is a Sports Vision training system developed by Dynamic Edge founder Karen Muncey based on decades of work with both military
Special Forces units and professional sports teams such as the Edmonton Oilers,
the Detroit Red Wings, the New York Rangers, the Edmonton Eskimos,
and the Ottawa Senators.

The training program begins with an evaluation of the athlete's current skill levels, in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, as compared to a database of elite athletes (primarily NHL and Special Forces) that has been compiled since 1984.
The evaluation is conducted over five training sessions using the DynaVision and Vizual Edge tools.
An Evaluation Report is generated is based on the objective measurements provided by these tools.
Based on the evaluation results, a training program is designed.

NOTICE: Dynamic Edge Partners with Amped Sports Lab and Ice Complex

As of Jan 1, 2016 Dynamic Edge has partnered with Amped Sports Lab and Ice Complex.
Amped has been certified by Dynamic Edge and now offers the sports vision training services for athletes that were previously offered by Dynamic Edge.
Existing Dynamic Edge training services customers have been transferred to Amped.
Dynamic Edge continues to offer our exclusive Certified Sports Vision Trainer course.
We are proud to teach our course at Amped's brand new state of the art facility in Ottawa.

Certified Sports Vision Trainer Course

Dynamic Edge offers a Certified Sports Vision Trainer course to teach the Dynamic Sensory Motor Integration (DSMI) Sports Vision training system.
This course is the best way to get started in this exciting and growing field of training.
You will learn how DSMI Sports Vision training services can be quickly incorporated into your existing business with very little investment.
In as little as 80 square feet, you can begin offering the most advanced Sports Vision training in the world, and improve your bottom line.
We provide all the training and tools you need to succeed.
We are eager to help you grow your business while growing Sports Vision training around the world!
Download the course outline now or Contact us today for more information about this exciting opportunity!

"During the time I spent with Karen at Dynamic Edge, I realized that sports vision training has many different applications that I was unaware of. The training for sport performance is obvious but I also learned it can be helpful in both head injury rehab, stroke rehab and concussion management. At Niagara Health & Rehab Centre we work with patients from all walks of life, from individuals who have suffered a stroke to Olympic and world class athletes. I feel that the training I received from Karen will be useful for many of these patients. On a personal note, I think the sport vision training with help me in my other job as a professional soccer referee in Major League Soccer. We are constantly needing to assess play and movement of players in the periphery and the training will certainly help in the regard. Thanks Karen for a excellent week of training and education!"

State of the Art Training Tools

DynaVision Training

Dynavision training.

The DynaVision1 is used to train dynamic visual skills such as eye-hand coordination, peripheral awareness, visual reaction time etc.
As such, this training is suitable for sports that are dynamic in nature. The DynaVision is the most effective tool available because each exercise forces the athlete to use most, and sometimes all, of the visual skills at once, and therefore provides a good indication of their ability to perform multiple sensory-motor tasks simultaneously. Athletes must not only recognize the existence of a peripheral stimulus, but also judge the exact location of the stimulus and react physically to it without losing their concentration on a key target.

VizualEdge Training

VizualEdge training.

Vizual Edge1 is a computer-based training program developed by Dr. Barry Seiller, an opthalmologist and founder of the Visual Fitness Institute. It complements DynaVision training by measuring and improving eye muscle strength and balance which affects your timing, depth perception, decision making, and your ability to track objects as they move rapidly toward or away from you.

Vizual Edge is used by major league sports teams such as the Cleveland Indians, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Chicago Black Hawks, as well as many university athletic programs in the United States.

NeuroTracker

Neurotracker training.

Q. What is NeuroTracker1?

A. A scientific technique that improves perceptual-cognitive abilities for athletic performance. An immersive environment is used train the athlete's multiple target tracking skills in a scene of dynamic 3D motion.

NeuroTracker was developed by CogniSens Athletics Inc. - a Montreal-based company that specializes in neurobiological science and technological applications for sports performance and assessment. The science is driven by Chief Science Officer Dr. Jocelyn Faubert, a world-leading neuro-physicist. Dr.Faubert is director of the Visual Psychophysics and Perception Laboratory at the University of Montreal.

Q. How does NeuroTracker work?

A. By isolating the core mental skills used for reading gameplay and then training them intensively at the level of the brain - a focused workout for the mind. NeuroTracker improves the efficiency of the neural networks that process complex motion. Athlete studies in the lab and in the field show NeuroTracker brings radical gains in "perceptual-cognitive ability" - the basis of visual processing. Gains in tracking skill are dramatic because the brain is so adaptive.

Q. Why is NeuroTracker unique?

A. NeuroTracker's hard science approach provides excellent measurements of perceptual agility. Although a major factor in team-sports performance this is generally untrained. NeuroTracker forms a true bridge between neuroscience and sports science as both a practical and proven way to improve perceptual-cognitive ability.

Q. Why is NeuroTracker for team-sports?

A. Team-sport athletes are the Einsteins of the athletic world. Throughout each game they are overwhelmed with scenes of complex and dynamic motion that change rapidly during critical moments of play. Rather than physical ability, sports science studies show that the key difference between elite and sub-elite athletes is the ability manage this visual overload. NeuroTracker raises game-shape levels to handle these extreme visual demands.

Q. What are NeuroTracker's applied uses?

A. NeuroTracker is primarily a performance enhancement tool, but the data drawn from every session is valuable for profiling each athlete's skillset and can also play a critical role in determining return to play readiness after a concussion. NeuroTracker improvement of perceptual agility is a proactive method for reducing the risks of injuries sustained from in-field collisions, and the non-physical training is ideal for athletes already injured.

Q. Does performance transfer?

A. As a raw perceptual-cognitive task, gains with training directly show increased visual processing skill. Substantial NeuroTracker improvements have been established with top teams in NHL, EPL and Rugby. CogniSens Athletics is now collaborating with several of these teams with the aim of correlating performance data and to study the effects of training physical skills while NeuroTracking.

Q. What is the benefit for managing concussions?

A. NeuroTracker sessions scientifically measure each athlete's perceptual-cognitive state. NeuroTracking activates high level mental resources at threshold levels that are known to be disrupted by the effects of concussions. Medical staff can retest post-concussed players to assess mental normalcy and to help judge readiness for going back into the field.

Q. How is injury prevention relevant?

A. Unanticipated collisions or tackles from the sides are a major injury threat amidst the chaos of team-sport play, making perceptual agility an athlete's first line of defense. NeuroTracker's uses wide visual immersion for conditioning peripheral awareness. As well as enhancing the ability to perceive more targets and track them moving in from the sides earlier, NeuroTracker increases the neural efficiency with which these are processed to help a player maintain awareness under pressure.

TAIS Personality Profile

The Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS)1 inventory, is a 144 item self-report questionnaire that measures twenty different concentration skills, personal and interpersonal attributes. Those specific concentration skills and personality characteristics can be thought of as the building blocks upon which more complex human behaviors depend.

Concentration skills, and the ability to shift both the width and direction (internal vs. external) are critical determinants of success or failure in virtually any performance situation. You cannot cross the street safely, without paying attention to performance relevant cues. You cannot communicate with another individual effectively without paying attention to the right cues. You cannot problem solve, without shifting attention and focusing on task relevant cues. You cannot get out of the starting blocks in the Olympics in time to win the race, without paying attention to the right cues.

The ability to shift attention, to pay attention to the right cues is affected by two things:

The strength of a particular focus of concentration. For example some people find it easier to attend to internal cues than they do to external ones. Some individuals find it easier to narrow concentration than they do to broaden their focus.

Changes in emotional arousal have a direct effect on the ability to shift ones focus of attention.

Scores on the TAIS attentional scales allow you to identify an individual's concentration strengths and relative weaknesses. Scores on TAIS personal and interpersonal scales allow you to anticipate the types of performance situations which are likely to interfere with a persons ability to control their level of emotional arousal. These two pieces of information, combined with an understanding of the concentration skills and interpersonal characteristics required by any specific performance situation will allow you to anticipate how a person will perform under pressure, and help you determine the specific steps that will be most helpful in overcoming any identified problem.

How Does Sports Vision Training Apply To Each Sport?

Visual Skills Glossary

Speed and Span of Recognition

How much information a player is able to take in at once
and how quickly he is able to interpret it. An increase
in an athlete's speed in recognizing a visual stimulus
results in a physical response that is much quicker and
more accurate.

Eye-Hand Coordination

The eyes lead the body, not the other way around. The visual
system leads the motor system. Our hands or feet or body
respond to the information the eyes have sent to the
brain. If this information is incorrect, even to the
slightest degree, there is a good chance that we will
make a mistake in our physical response. Almost every
sport error, or poorly executed play, can be attributed
to faulty visual judgement, and it is visual judgement
alone that determines eye-hand coordination.

Peripheral Awareness

This must not be confused with peripheral vision, which cannot
be changed. Peripheral vision is dictated by the skeletal
structure and the shape of the retina, so what you're
born with is what you've got and barring injury
or disease, it's what you will die with. Peripheral
awareness, on the other hand, can be greatly enhanced
by using retinal stimulation. Well developed peripheral
awareness helps the athlete to see everything at once,
to maintain the whole pattern or the flow of the play,
even as they move within it.

Anticipation Timing

The ability to accurately perceive or anticipate what is
about to happen, and when. Visual skills training improves
your ability to selectively detect important advance
physical cues. However, since timing is the key to effective
performance, it's important not to over anticipate and commit yourself too soon.
Most efforts fail not because the physical movements were wrong, but because they were made at the wrong time.
The ability to anticipate is a major factor in high level competitive activities, and even superior speed, size and reflexes cannot compensate for the insufficient processing of the visual information regarding when to perform.

Visual Reaction Time

The amount of time required to process the visual information
and initiate a physical reaction/response.

Concentration

The ability to maintain a high level of focus on a key target
or objective, in spite of distractions, while also maintaining
total awareness of what is happening around you.

Focusing and Tracking

Focusing flexibility and tracking are two separate skills, but
inseparable as they must work together to achieve good,
clear vision; for example, keeping your eyes on the ball.
This requires both the ability to change focus instantaneously
as objects move closer to or further away from you (accommodation),
as well as the ability to keep both eyes working in unison
as they track rapidly moving objects (convergence/divergence).
Studies have shown that if the athlete's head has
to move to aid in eye tracking, his performance is not
only less efficient, but balance is thrown off too.

Depth Perception

Both eyes working together to give us the ability to judge
the distance, the speed and the revolution of objects
in space. Poor eye teaming can cause your eyes to misjudge
the precise distance of your target, which in turn will
cause your brain to misjudge the correct distance. If
you perceive the target closer, you will react too soon.
If you perceive it farther, you will react too late.

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